


"I'm not gonna leave you."

by AgentMaryMargaretSkitz



Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: A CURSE UPON NBC, F/M, How could they cancel this?, Nightmares, Post-Season/Series 02, Riya will live on, Rufus Carlin Lives, also they deserve so much more fanfic, do you not expect me to be bitter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-06-06 09:46:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15192116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentMaryMargaretSkitz/pseuds/AgentMaryMargaretSkitz
Summary: The Time Team managed to save Rufus from death, but he still remembers what happened to him.





	"I'm not gonna leave you."

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lostinthespeedforce](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostinthespeedforce/gifts).



> lostinthespeedforce asked for Riya + "I'm not gonna leave you."
> 
> I have been meaning to get this up for a week, and now I finally have managed to do so!

A series of quick shots rang out in the evening air. The bullets burned as they struck him in the chest. He watched Emma dart away as he sank down to the ground. Rufus pressed his hand against the wounds, staring at the red slick that coated his hand.

“Rufus!” Jiya screamed.

He could feel himself slipping away and death creeping up on him no matter how hard he tried to fight it.

“Rufus! Rufus!”

This wasn’t supposed to happen. Jiya hadn’t seen this in her vision. They’d avoided the way he was supposed to die. He didn’t want to die, not in the past like this.

“Rufus, wake up!”

Jiya’s voice made him flinch violently and open up his eyes. She was sitting on the floor beside the bed, her eyes wide with alarm. He shuddered as his hand gripped the sheets covering him while the other hand ran over his chest. No bullet holes, no blood. He was okay.

“You started screaming,” his girlfriend explained as he sat upright. “You saw it again, didn’t you?”

Rufus gave a nod, letting out a shaky breath. It had been two months since they had visited Chinatown to rescue Jiya and he had sort of been killed by Emma. The good news was that future Lucy and Wyatt had found a way to cross into their own timeline and give the present team the information they needed to save him. While that had been a successful mission a month later, everyone who had gone to the past the first time retained their original memories of the timeline where he’d perished. That meant Rufus remembered dying in very vivid detail, which he had been witnessing it nearly every night.

“I wish I could forget it,” he murmured quietly, rubbing the place where one of the bullets had struck him. 

Jiya’s hand came to rest over his. “I know. I’m sorry we did this to you, even if we were able to bring you back.”

“None of you knew. There is so little that we know about the science of time travel and bringing back the dead. That’s what makes it terrifying.”

“Yeah, we’ve both seen that firsthand,” Jiya sighed. “I still wake up and have to look over to remind myself you’re here again. I saw that vision enough times that your death felt like it still happened, and you being back was only a dream.”

She paused before adding, “Sometimes I still expect to wake up any second and realize you’re still gone.”

“Hey,” Rufus gave her hand a squeeze and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “I’m not gonna leave you. Not again. Right now, I am alive and here and scared shitless about Emma leading Rittenhouse.”

“Is that last one supposed to make me feel better?”

“I remember what death feels like. You don’t feel anything. It’s like everything about you and the things you care about become nothing. Knowing that I can feel scared of Emma or know how much I love you reminds me that I’m still alive.”

Jiya finally began to smile. “Good, because I don’t want to lose you like that again. Or in any other way.”

“Then I’ll try not to die,” Rufus chuckled. “Sorry I woke you up, by the way.”

His girlfriend shook her head. “Don’t worry. Besides, I don’t really feel like going back to sleep anymore.”

“Me neither. Want to watch something?”

“That sounds like a perfect idea.”

**Author's Note:**

> #SaveTimeless


End file.
